1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a mobile communication terminal having a non-contact IC card.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electronic account-settlement system including a non-contact IC card is presently practically used, for instance, in a ticket-examination system in various transportation systems. In addition, an electronic account-settlement system is also being developed as a pre-paid type electronic money system for shopping, for instance.
A present non-contact IC card is not designed to have a function of displaying data stored therein. Hence, a history of how a non-contact IC card is used is displayed through an IC-card reader/writer as a viewer such as a ticket-examination unit.
In order to make it unnecessary to use an IC-card reader/writer as a viewer for viewer a history of how a non-contact IC card is used, there has bee suggested a mobile communication terminal such as a cellular phone including a non-contact IC card. A history of how a non-contact IC card is used is stored in a memory and displayed through a display unit in a mobile communication terminal. That is, a mobile communication terminal acts as a viewer for viewing information stored in a non-contact IC card.
FIG. 1A illustrates an example of a conventional cellular phone 500 as a mobile communication terminal, including a non-contact IC card therein.
The cellular phone 500 makes electronic settlement with an IC-card reader/writer 501. When a user of the cellular phone 500 purchases something through electronic money, a user receives a charge 502 to be paid from the IC-card reader/writer 501 through his/her cellular phone 500, and further receives transaction information 503, for instance, including a name of a shop, an address of a shop, a telephone number of a shop, date and time of purchase, what a user purchased, and so on. The received transaction information 503 is stored in a memory in the cellular phone 500.
FIG. 1B illustrates an example of the transaction information 503. The illustrated transaction information 503 shows that a user purchased a cloth at XXX department store at a price of ¥10,500 on 13:00, Jan. 1, 2004.
FIG. 1C illustrates another example of the transaction information 503. The illustrated transaction information 503 shows that a user paid ¥160 as fare at YYY station on 14:00, Jan. 14, 2004.
FIG. 2 is a flow-chart showing steps to be carried out when a user purchases something through electronic money through his/her cellular phone 500.
When a user of the cellular phone 500 purchases something through electronic money, the IC-card reader/writer 501 reads data out of a non-contact IC card for identifying the user (step S100).
The IC-card reader/writer 501 charges the non-contact IC card of a fee 502 (step S110), and concurrently, transmits the transaction information 503 to the cellular phone 500 (step S120).
On receipt of the transaction information, the cellular phone 500 stores the received transaction information in a memory (step S130). If requested by the user, the cellular phone 500 displays all of the transaction information 503 stored in a memory (step S140). Then, the user can view the transaction information 503 displayed in a display screen of his/her cellular phone 500 (step S150).
A memory of the cellular phone 500 is used also for storing a telephone directory, e-mails and various data. Hence, just a small memory capacity is assigned to storage of a history of how a non-contact IC card has been used.
Thus, when much history is stored in a memory, older history is deleted when newer history is stored into a memory. For instance, if a user uses a non-contact IC card as a ticket or a wallet, such history renewal is frequently carried out, resulting in that old history of how the non-contact IC card has been used is renewed at a high pace. Hence, it is preferable for a user that a memory of the cellular phone 500 has a big capacity.
In addition, a history of how a non-contact IC card has been used is stored only in a memory of the cellular phone 500, if a user lost his/her cellular phone 500 or the cellular phone 500 were out of order, such a history is lost, unless a user copies the history in another memory as back-up data.
Furthermore, if a user lost his/her cellular phone 500, he/she cannot find the cellular phone 500, unless the cellular phone 500 has a GPS (Global Positioning System) function. In particular, if a lost cellular phone includes a non-contact IC card therein, the non-contact IC card may be illegally used.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-346259 has suggested a communication system including a mobile communication terminal, and a mobile communication network, where the mobile communication terminal receives image or character data stored in the mobile communication network. The image or character data is transferred to another mobile communication terminal through another mobile communication network.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-271508 has suggested a system for administrating private data, where private data stored in a cellular phone is stored in a database in a data-center and administrated by the data-center. When the data is revised or the data is updated, a notification mail is transmitted to a user.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-91883 has suggested a cellular phone which downloads content data and a content file including content information relating to the content data, from a server, and stores them in a memory card. The cellular phone reads the content information out of the memory card, and makes a content mail to which the content information is attached. The content mail is transmitted from the cellular phone to another cellular phone.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-230492 has suggested a memory card storing various data therein, including an optical media and a non-contact IC chip.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-342362 has suggested a data communication system in which when a mobile memory medium has been used, a data administrator transmits credit card information and/or card-user information to a cellular phone of a user.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-23666 has suggested a data communication system including a mobile terminal having destination data indicative of a destination to which an e-mail is to be transmitted, a data reader which transmits the destination data read out of the mobile terminal together with ID data for identifying the data reader, and a server which transmits data indicative of a location at which the data reader is placed, to the destination indicated by the destination data.